The pens of the defeated: John Hewitt, Sam Thompson and the Northern Ireland Labour Party

Abstract

Telescoping the political lives and work of Sam Thompson and John Hewitt, this article demonstrates the importance of the Labour movement on both Belfast-born Protestant writers and how this inculcated a socialist conviction quite separate and antagonistic to Ulster unionism. Referencing Thompson's unpublished, largely unknown plays as well as newspapers and his trio of performed works, the article illuminates his public impact as well as the significance of the play Over the Bridge (1960). Hewitt's early political activities and regionalist outlook are explored, as is the controversy surrounding his 1957 move to Coventry. The underestimated importance of a class perspective within Northern Protestantism is addressed, the article arguing that questions of national identity are secondary to the writers' class and internationalist politics. With continuing resonance, literature and writing itself are shown as intrinsic to the Northern Ireland Labour Party, with which both were associated, fuelling resistance to both unionism and Irish nationalism.

Keywords::

• Labour movement
• Ulster unionism
• class
• identity politics
• Northern Irish arts

Notes

^1. McCann, “Sam Thompson,” 97.

^2. Graecen, Rooted in Ulster, 123.

^3. Brett, Long Shadows, 65.

^4. Brian Garrett, interview with the author, Belfast, March 28, 2011.

^5. Dawe and Longley, “Introduction” to Across a Roaring Hill, xi.

^6. Craig, “Visiting John Hewitt.”

^7. Quoted in Sam McAughtry, “Trying to Make Sense of the North,” The Irish Times, July 25, 1983, 10.

^8. Paul Arthur, “Taking a Leaf Out of Hewitt's Book,” The Irish Times, August 8, 1989, 10.

^9. Hobsbawm, “War of Ideas,” 6.

^10. Douglas McIldoon, interview with the author, Belfast, January 27, 2012.

^11. Sam Napier, quoted in “Funeral of Sam Napier in Bangor,” The Irish Times, April 27, 1984, 7.

^12. Sam McAughtry, “A Good Mark,” The Irish Times, May 22, 1985, 11; Fergus Pyle, “N.I. Labour Votes for C.R. Campaign,” The Irish Times, May 26, 1969, 14. Another member of the NILP literati was the dramatist John D. Stewart, who was the party's last nomination as a Senator to Stormont's Upper House. Stewart never faced election because of the parliament's prorogation (Edwards, History of the Northern Ireland Labour Party, 188–9)

^13. Foster, Between Shadows, 213.

^14. Richardson, “Sam & Me,” 21–3, 26, 28.

^15. David Simpson, “Over the Bridge – The View 30 Years On,” Belfast Telegraph, January 26, 1985, 11; Devlin, Straight Left, 276.

^16. Quoted in Megahey, “Reality of his Fictions,” 204.

^17. Quoted in “P.M. v. Playwright: Round 3,” Belfast News Letter, April 9, 1964, 5.

^18. “Prime Minister Hits at ‘Closed Society’ Outlook,” Belfast News Letter, April 4, 1964, 1.

^19. “Ulster, The Land of Never-Never – Sam Thompson,” Irish News, April 10, 1964, 5.

^20. McCann, “Sam Thompson,” 97. Thompson received 6260 votes to Orr's 32,922.

^21. “RUC in Falls Clash,” Belfast News Letter, October 1, 1964, 1; Brett, Long Shadows, 131.

^22. Devlin, “Voice of Many Men,” 20.

^23. McCann, “Sam Thompson,” 97.

^24. Ibid., 95–6.

^25. Longley, “Progressive Bookmen,” 57. See also Devlin, “Over the Bridge Controversy,” 4–6.

^26. “A Director of the Group Offers his Resignation,” Belfast Telegraph, May 8, 1959, 1; “‘Over the Bridge’ Man Gets Legal Advice,” Belfast Telegraph, May 14, 1959, 1.

^27. Jimmy Ellis, speaking at “An Evening with Jimmy Ellis,” 12th Belfast Film Festival, June 9, 2012.

^28. Keyes, Going Dark, 82–7. See also “Obituary: Business Leader and Arts Patron,” Belfast Telegraph, February 27, 1964, 2. CEMA was a forerunner of the Arts Council.

^29. Autobiographical script.

^30. Keyes, Going Dark, 83.

^31. “Play ‘Full of Grossly Vicious Situations,’” The Irish Times, May 14, 1959, 9.

^32. “Author is to Sue Theatre,” Belfast Telegraph, May 16, 1959, 1; “Action by Playwright Settled,” The Irish Times, July 10, 1959, 1.

^33. Quoted in Keyes, Going Dark, 85.

^34. Boyd, Middle of my Journey, 117; O'Malley, Never Shake Hands, 122–3.

^35. “‘Over the Bridge’ Sets up Box-office Record,” Belfast Telegraph, March 7, 1960, 4.

^36. Thompson, Over the Bridge, 39.

^37. Quoted in “Belfast Theatre Backs Down on Play,” Belfast Telegraph, May 7, 1959, 1.

^38. Quoted in Mengal, Sam Thompson, 249.

^39. Quoted in “Portrait Gallery,” The Irish Times, March 12, 1960, 10.

^40. Burnside, “Preparing Lonely Defences,” III.

^41. Hewitt, “No Rootless Colonist” (1972), in Clyde, Ancestral Voices, 150–1.

^42. Quoted in Sam McAughtry, “Trying to Make Sense of the North,” The Irish Times, July 25, 1983, 10. This appears to be “A Labour Victory: An Election Incident” (1928).

^43. Letter to John Montague, spring 1964, Hewitt Archive, Library of the University of Ulster – Coleraine.

^44. Fitzpatrick, “Solitary and Wild”; Craig, “Visiting John Hewitt”. See also Walsh, “‘Too Much Alone.’”

^45. Kilfeather, “Remembering John Hewitt,” 33.

^46. Levine, “Tree of Identities,” 16.

^47. Rees, Labour, 33–63; Walker, History of the Ulster Unionist Party, 100–18.

^48. Clyde, “A Stirring in the Dry Bones,” 250–1.

^49. Hewitt, “Regionalism: The Last Chance” (1947), in Clyde, Ancestral Voices, 125.

^50. See Ó Seaghdha, “Ulster Regionalism,” 54–61.

^51. Hewitt, “No Rootless Colonist,” 153.

^52. Rees, Labour, 152; Fergus Pyle, “The Soil and Atmosphere Made us Irish,” The Irish Times, March 18, 1986, 13.

^53. McFadden, “No Dusty Pioneer,” 176; Montague, Pear is Ripe, 140, 147.

^54. Hewitt, “No Rootless Colonist,” 149.

^55. Kinsella, Dual Tradition, 118–21.

^56. Derek Mahon, “An Honest Ulsterman,” The Irish Times, January 1, 1988, 29.

^57. Maxton (W.J. McCormack), Waking, 211.

^58. Quoted in O'Driscoll, Stepping Stones, 331–2.

^59. Heaney, “Poetry of John Hewitt,” 208–9.

^60. Dawe, Against Piety, 95, 99.

^61. Graecen, Rooted in Ulster, 119.

^62. Quoted in Sam McAughtry, “Trying to Make Sense of the North,” The Irish Times, July 25, 1983, 10.

^63. Heaney, “Frontiers,” 195–6, 198.

^64. Dallat, “Single Flame,” 124–7. Hewitt donated his body to Queen's University for research (“Hewitt, a Father Figure to Ulster's Poets, Dies at 79,” The Irish Times, June 30, 1987, 5).

^65. Hewitt, “A North Light,” in Clyde, Ancestral Voices, 34–5.

^66. Devlin, “No Rootless Colonist,” 22.

^67. Hewitt, “No Rootless Colonist,” 148–9.

^68. Letter to John Boyd, September 14, 1970, John Boyd Collection – Correspondence, Linen Hall Library.

^69. Hewitt, “No Rootless Colonist,” 150. In what many considered a miscarriage of justice, the two Italian immigrant anarchists were in 1927 convicted of armed robbery and executed in Boston, Massachusetts.

^70. Devlin, “Introduction” to Over the Bridge; Hewitt, “No Rootless Colonist,” 151.

^71. Bob Purdie, interview with the author, Belfast, April 25, 2012; Longley, “The Poker,” in A Hundred Doors, 31. See also Brett, Long Shadows, 62.

^72. Tony Kennedy, interview with the author, Belfast, June 14, 2012; Patten, “Roots, Regions and Radicals,” 29.

^73. Hewitt, “No Rootless Colonist,” 148.

^74. Letter to John Boyd, December 11, 1971, John Boyd Collection – Correspondence, Linen Hall Library. See also Kilfeather, “Remembering John Hewitt,” 33.

^75. Thompson, Cemented with Love, in Over the Bridge, 188.

^76. Louis MacNeice, “Out of the Deadpan,” The Observer, January 31, 1960, 23.

^77. Quoted in “Belfast Theatre Backs Down on Play,” Belfast Telegraph, May 7, 1959, 1.

^78. Thompson, The Long Back Street, 33. One of Thompson's biographers argues that the voice of the heckler represents “the voice of Sam Thompson”, compounded by the way Thompson often voiced or acted this part himself (Mengal, Sam Thompson, 213).

^79. Brian Garrett, interview with the author, Belfast, March 28, 2011.

^80. “‘The Evangelist’ at Gaiety,” The Irish Times, June 20, 1963, 6.

^81. Megahey, Reality of his Fictions, 166.

^82. Quidnunc (Patrick Campbell), “Controversial Subjects,” The Irish Times, August 2, 1961, 8.

^83. Hilton Edwards, quoted in “‘Evangelist’ Exposes Hypocrisy,” The Irish Times, June 18, 1963, 11.

^84. Thompson, Evangelist, in Over the Bridge, 115, 158.

^85. Quoted in “Playwright Replies to his Critics,” Belfast Telegraph, June 7, 1963, 2.

^86. Quoted in “Sam Thompson Attacks CEMA,” Belfast Telegraph, April 24, 1962, 7.

^87. Quoted in “Writer Who Speaks his Mind ‘a Danger Here,’” Irish News, December 8, 1961, 2.

^88. Quoted in “Sam Shows RUC ‘Abusive Letter,’” Belfast News Letter, October 25, 1962, 7.

^89. Mengal, Sam Thompson, 447.

^90. Thompson, Border Line, 51.

^91. “B.B.C. Postpones Election Play by Sam Thompson,” The Irish Times, November 25, 1964, 12.

^92. “Cemented with Love Stuck Fast as BBC Deliberate,” Belfast News Letter, December 14, 1964, 4.

^93. Quoted in “Thompson Says BBC Censor Denial is ‘Eyewash,’” Belfast Telegraph, February 10, 1965, 4.

^94. “Sudden Death of Sam Thompson,” Belfast Telegraph, February 15, 1965, 1. Thompson had already suffered two heart attacks and numerous health scares.

^95. Bell, Salute from the Banderol, 180.

^96. Parker, “Introduction,” 62.

^97. Letter to John Boyd, May 8, 1965, John Boyd Collection – Correspondence, Linen Hall Library.

^98. Richardson, “Sam & Me,” 25 (Richardson's emphasis).

^99. Johnston, Lost Tribe, 32.

^100. Quoted in Hyndman, Further Afield, 234.

^101. Thompson, Tea Breakers, 4–5, 8, 39, 46.

^102. “‘Over the Bridge’ is Strikingly Fair: Rev. Principal Davey's Assessment,” Belfast Telegraph, April 7, 1960, 2.

^103. Erskine Holmes, correspondence with the author, February 3, 2011.

^104. Quoted in Eavan Boland, “The Clash of Identities – I,” The Irish Times, July 4, 1974, 12.

^105. Purdie, Politics in the Streets, 9.

^106. O'Malley, Never Shake Hands, 64–5. Not to be confused with the NILP, the Irish Labour Party had organised in Belfast from 1949 and gained several municipal seats in wards with Catholic constituents.

^107. Hewitt, “From Chairmen and Committee Men, Good Lord Deliver Us,” in Clyde, Ancestral Voices, 49, 51–2, 54–5.

^108. Montague, Pear is Ripe, 141.

^109. Letter to John Boyd, May 8, 1965, John Boyd Collection – Correspondence, Linen Hall Library; Burnside, “Preparing Lonely Defences,” III.

^110. Quoted in Fitzpatrick, “Planter and Gael,” 87.

^111. Tony Kennedy, interview with the author, Belfast, June 14, 2012.

^112. O'Malley, Never Shake Hands, 121; O'Driscoll, Stepping Stones, 332.

^113. Letter to John Boyd, April 21, 1966, John Boyd Collection – Correspondence, Linen Hall Library. McBirney's 45.3% of the vote in East Belfast – to his Unionist opponent's 54.7% – was the NILP's best ever Westminster result.

^114. Hewitt, “Alec of the Chimney Corner,” 42–6.

^115. Robert Ramsay, interview with the author, Cultra, February 2, 2012; Devlin, Fall of N. I. Executive, 83.

^116. Douglas McIldoon, interview with the author, Belfast, January 27, 2012.

^117. Tony Kennedy, interview with the author, Belfast, June 14, 2012.

^118. Paulin, “An Inner Freedom,” 24.

^119. Quoted in Fitzpatrick, “Planter and Gael”, 91; Hewitt, “The Bitter Gourd: Some Problems of the Ulster Writer” (1945), in Clyde, Ancestral Voices, 114.

^120. Arthur, “John Hewitt's Hierarchy,” 283–4.

^121. McElborough, Loyalism and Labour, 2, 69.

^122. Quoted in Levine, “Tree of Identities,” 16.

^123. Letter to John Boyd, December 11, 1971, John Boyd Collection – Correspondence, Linen Hall Library.

^124. Quoted in Devlin, “Voice of Many Men,” 21–2. The NILP's leader Tom Boyd, Paddy Devlin, Sam Napier and Martin McBirney were among those present at the original funeral (“Tears in Men's Eyes at Sam Thompson's Funeral,” Belfast News Letter, February 18, 1965, 1). At the Belfast City Cemetery grave re-commemoration over forty-five years later, Brian Garrett turned finitely to Anne Devlin and said “you and I, Anne, are what's left of the Northern Ireland Labour Party here”.

^125. Megahey, Reality of his Fictions, 272; “Successful Dublin Run,” The Irish Times, April 9, 1960, 11.

^126. Quoted in “US Visit ‘An Ulster Blarney Tour’ – Writer,” Belfast News Letter, March 24, 1964, 9.

^127. Dallat, “What Identity Crisis?,” 17.

^128. Paul Arthur, “Taking a Leaf out of Hewitt's Book,” The Irish Times, August 8, 1989, 10.

^129. “Swapping Politics for Poetry at Hewitt Summer School Opening,” Belfast Telegraph, July 24, 2012, 2; Tony Kennedy, interview with the author, Belfast, June 14, 2012. The DUP's Arlene Foster followed Ní Chuilín to speak at the 2013 event.

^130. Dawe, Against Piety, 89, 101–12.

^131. Longley, “The Planter's Rights,” 1162.

^132. Stewart Parker, “The Tribe and Thompson,” The Irish Times, June 18, 1970, 12.

^133. Boyd, Middle of my Journey, 117. See also McCann, “Sam Thompson,” 95.

^134. Ray Rosenfield, “Sam Thompson's ‘Over the Bridge’ in Book Form,” The Irish Times, December 8, 1970, 10.

^135. Devlin, “No Rootless Colonist,” 23.

^136. Devlin, “John Hewitt.” See also Devlin, Straight Left, 274.

^137. Thompson, Over the Bridge, 64, 88.

^138. Eavan Boland, “John Hewitt – An Appreciation,” The Irish Times, June 30, 1987, 8; Heaney, “Frontiers,” 197–8.

^139. Walsh, “‘Too Much Alone,’” 357. “I found myself alone” is a line from Hewitt's poem “Because I paced my thought” (1944) and was also the title of an Arts Council-funded 1978 short film on Hewitt.

^140. Jeff Dudgeon, “Advances Made but the Fight for Rights not Over,” Belfast Telegraph, July 29, 2011, 37.

^141. Buñuel, My Last Sigh, 158, 170, 182.

^142. Quoted in “No Place for Culture, Says Sam Thompson,” Belfast Telegraph, November 16, 1963, 6.

^143. Devlin, “John Hewitt.”

^144. Foster, Between Shadows, 214.

^145. Bell, Salute from the Banderol, 184–5.

^146. Fintan O'Toole, “Escaping Reality into the Realm of Fiction,” The Irish Times, October 12, 1989, 10.

^147. Sontag, “Literature as Freedom,” 183.

^148. Quoted in Levine, “Tree of Identities,” 17.